I totally forgot about the
Funeral Procession in honour of what used to be La Main - Montréal's Red Light district, the heart and soul of North America for the first half of the 20th century, where Americans would stock up on alcohol during prohibition, where jazz greats (
Miles Davis,
John Coltrane,
Muddy Watters,
Charles Mingus and countless others) came to play and escape racism, where they made the best hot dogs (
Montréal Pool Room, established in 1912), near the best smoked meat (
Schwartz') in the world, and, of course,
Café Cleopatra, one of the continent's first very openly drag-queen friendly venues (which also holds a regular female-dancer strip club on the first floor).
All housed in centuries-old buildings, set to be destroyed within the next few months after years of heritage groups, citizens, artists and tourism experts
trying to get the madness stopped. And they still don't know what they'll erect in its place, all suitable tenants having elected to conduct their business elsewhere!
Luckily, photographer
S. E. Amesse was there to take these pictures:
Costumes, a live orchestra - when
artists grieve, they do it i style!
Look at how desolate the corner that made Montréal's reputation now looks:
Not only are our governments corrupt and crumbling, but our infrastructure, our buildings, nearly 400 years of history is going to the wayside for Disney-themed ''art'' neighbourhoods (
Quartier Des Spectacles) and fucking condos. In the heart of fucking downtown. And
our mayor is proud of himself.
It's
as out of its place as pork sold in a mosque a fucking disgrace.
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